page_title: The Boys of 86
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: The Boys of 86 / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: Phil Parkes Upton Park 11 September 2010
context_page_description: The Boys of 86 are the West Ham United team of the 1985–86 season.
  The West Ham team from this season achieved their highest ever position in the Football League, third in the First Division. They were challenging for the title throughout the season which has been described as West Ham's greatest ever season. With one game remaining they were second in the league eventually finishing third behind champions, Liverpool and Everton. The season is often used as a comparison for more modern West Ham United teams.
context_section_description: Managed by John Lyall, West Ham had finished 16th in the previous season but additions of Frank McAvennie and Mark Ward combined with the partnership of McAvennie and Tony Cottee and the captaincy of Alvin Martin made West Ham genuine title challengers.
  The season had started badly with one win from the first seven games. By the autumn the club had gone on a record 18 games undefeated including nine successive victories and by Christmas of 1985 they were described by journalist Joe Melling of the Daily Express as the "best team in the land". After three defeats in four games and a period when fixtures were badly affected by weather West Ham were 7th. However a 4-0 away win at Chelsea's Stamford Bridge, an 8-1 win against Newcastle United, in which Alvin Martin scored a hat-trick against three different goalkeepers, and a period when four games were played in one week, had West Ham four points behind Liverpool with a game in hand. The title was eventually won by Liverpool after Kenny Dalglish scored in a 1-0 victory over Chelsea in the last but one game of the season. In a final game of the season an exhausted West Ham team lost to Everton at Goodison Park to take third place.
  Team member Tony Gale, who would later go on to win a Premier League title with Blackburn Rovers, said of the season, "I will never forget those days as long as I live. That was a dream team....wonderful to play in and wonderful to watch". McAvennie scored 26 league goals in the season with Cottee contributing 20. Nine players appeared in 38 or more games and only 17 outfield players were used all season, the importance of a "settled side" being given for the team's good performance.
caption: Phil Parkes played in goal for every game of the 85-86 season.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 7D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "PaintShop Photo Pro 13.00", "Image DateTime": "2010:09:13 15:34:59", "Image Artist": "Hilton Teper", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "Hilton Teper", "Image ExifOffset": "296", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "1066", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1190", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5894", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/200", "EXIF FNumber": "5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "160", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2010:09:11 18:29:50", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2010:09:11 18:29:50", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "61/8", "EXIF ApertureValue": "37/8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "109", "EXIF SubSecTime": "82", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "82", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "82", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3955", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3381", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1030", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "5184000/907", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "691200/119", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}